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A Head Butler Investigation: The Eschaton, David Foster Wallace, and the Decemberists
By
Published: Jan 17, 2018
Category:
Fiction
David Foster Wallace’s “Infinite Jest” was published in 1996. I haven’t read one of its 1,096 pages.
The Decemberists released “Calamity Song” in 2011. I just heard it.
I got to this song and that book because I heard a song on WFUV. The band is Darlingside. The song is “Eschaton.”
Some lyrics:
You, me, the Young Turks by the BU Bridge
All of the lines are fixed
We need to remember what happens, if
We don’t write it who will?
Time, look at the time
And what we used to be
Signs, what are the signs?
Nobody here still reads
I hear the eschaton
I see our stripes on floating ground
No matter what we’ve been, we are the upshot now
Follow me, please. Let’s see where Google takes us.
Eschaton? I knew the word, because it’s the name of the online site of one of my favorite bloggers, Duncan Black.
But what does the word mean?
Eschaton: “the final event in the divine plan; the end of the world.” (Ah. No wonder this song is getting played now.)
Google also alerted me to Eschaton in David Foster Wallace’s book: “a fictional geopolitical game played on four contiguous tennis courts.” [To buy the paperback of “Infinite Jest” from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.]
And that led to the music video for “Calamity Song.”
What was it about? The lyrics were evocative, but not revealing:
Had a dream
You and me and the war at the end times
And I believe
California succumbed to the fault line
We heaved relief
As scores of innocents died
And the Andalusian tribes
Setting the lay of Nebraska alight
‘Til all the remains is the arms of the angel
Hetty Green
Queen of supply-side bonhomie bone-drab
If you know what I mean
On the road
It’s well-advised to follow your own path
In the year of the chewable Ambien tab
And the Panamanian child
Stands at the Dowager Empress’s side
And all the remains is the arms of the angel
And all the remains is the arms of the angels
And you’ve receded into loam
And they’re picking at your bones
Will call cold
We’ll come home
Quiet now
Will we gather to conjure the rain down
Will we now
Build a civilization below ground
And I’ll be crowned
The community kicked it around
And the Andalusian tribes
Setting the lay of Nebraska alight
‘Til all the remains is the arms of the angel
‘Til all the remains is the arms of the angels
A comment on Amazon was accurate — “an uplifting song about doom and gloom” — but not enlightening. [To download “Calamity” from Amazon, click here.]
I dug deeper. And discovered the connection, thanks to the New York Times:
Adolescents from a New England tennis academy are seen ritualistically serving balls on a court onto which a map of the world has been superimposed. The balls, which represent five-megaton nuclear warheads, are aimed at objects labeled as military targets — power plants, missile installations — while a lone child oversees the game from a nearby computer terminal.
The song was written by Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy:
I wrote “Calamity Song” shortly after I’d finished reading David Foster Wallace’s epic “Infinite Jest.” The book didn’t so much inspire the song itself, but Wallace’s irreverent and brilliant humor definitely wound its way into the thing. And I had this funny idea that a good video for the song would be a re-creation of the Enfield Tennis Academy’s round of Eschaton — basically, a global thermonuclear crisis re-created on a tennis court — that’s played about a third of the way into the book.
I was poking fun at the romance of disaster that you sometimes see in Christian fundamentalism. Sarah Palin saying how Alaska will be the final paradise once the lower United States succumb to earthquake and flood, [and] people will make their way to this promised land of Alaska. I always thought it was fairly funny and an interesting view of what the End Times would be. I think of ‘Calamity Song’ as being as outrageous of an exploration of disaster as I could muster.
Thankfully, after having a good many people balk at the idea, I found a kindred spirit in Michael Schur, a man with an even greater enthusiasm for Wallace’s work than my own.
Michael Schur, who directed the video, is a co-creator of NBC’s “Parks and Recreation.” He’d never directed a music video before. His distant connection to the band: He went to Harvard with the brother of Colin Meloy’s band’s manager. He wrote his undergraduate thesis about “Infinite Jest.” His love of “Infinite Jest” was well known. So….
The band’s manager, Jason, contacted me through his brother Michael and asked me to direct a video they were planning that referenced a section of the book “Infinite Jest.”The Decemberists are my favorite band, and “Infinite Jest”is my favorite book. This was tantamount to telling me I had just won two simultaneous Powerball lottery jackpots, on my birthday, which was also Christmas. Thus, my response to him was that, although I was pretty sure this was an elaborate dream I was having, if it were in fact real, then yes, I would be interested. The production team on “Parks and Recreation,” many of whom are also big fans, volunteered their time and energy, and we shot the whole thing in one day in Portland. “Infinite Jest “geeks will hopefully enjoy all of the specific references and small details, but we tried to design it so that those with no knowledge of the book at all would also be able to understand and enjoy it.
And now we do understand it. Sort of. And, maybe, enjoy gaining a little useless wisdom, suitable for sharing when you want to come off as a pop culture pedant. Like, I fear, me.
BONUS VIDEO
